Death of Tyranny
by Guestman
Summary: An old UNSC ship, a death sentence for its crew. A series of unknown planets, to be explored. A new ally to take to the fight. A new future enemy. All because of a faulty slipspace drive.
1. Chapter 1

**AN. This is a side project to my main story, The Columbian Wasteland. If this gets enough of a reception, I will post more of the story. A full disclaimer: I own neither Halo nor Pokemon. Also, I'm not especially familiar with the Halo story, and have been using research via Halo-Nation. If I got something wrong, please point it out in a civil manner such that it may be corrected. With that said...**

The year is 2552, the date July 24. The location, the Planet Reach, stronghold of humanity and the home of the Spartan program that produced the heroes of humanity, the Spartan-II's and Spartan-III's. But we're not here to follow Noble Team or to tag along with the Master Chief in his exploits. No, this story is a grass roots story, a tale of common Marines and Sailors and of a discovery that will change the course of the war, and it all began with a hurried jump to slipspace. A converted Phoenix class colony ship, Death of Tyranny hovered around Reach, going through resupply.

The war had been hard on the ship. She hadn't exactly been in her first flush of youth when she was converted for the war effort and many of the parts used in the conversion were second hand from other ships. Most of her weapons badly needed to be fully repaired, her MAC cannon would typically only fire six shots before it overheated and had to be repaired, her slipspace drive was temperamental at best and often had to be turned on and off a few times before it would work, and the reactor had to have parts scavenged off of wrecked spaceships applied to keep functioning. In short, it was a miracle that the ship was even functioning, a feat accomplished through the ingenuity of the long beleaguered engineering department.

The less said about the crew, the better. While some of the crew was up to snuff, the majority of the crew were Marines and Sailors who had disgraced themselves with one or more offenses. In other cases, these were the one's who didn't meet the physical requirements, were psychologically unstable, or were otherwise unfit for military service. To be sent to the Death of Tyranny was a punishment bordering on a death sentence. There had been some talk of using these men and women for some Project, but even for the UNSC, it was deemed too cruel and more importantly a waste of resources. At least by sending them to this ship they could get some use out of the chaff.

Some confused it for being subterfuge at first, to fool the Covenant into thinking that the ship was a piece of junk, that she had some serious fire power or speed (akin to the Q-ships from WWI and WWII of the pre-Cyber Age). But, when they actually looked closer at the ship, they realized that she was indeed a flying piece of junk. She badly needed a refit, a long time in the repair yards to get her fully war ready, but the UNSC needed every ship and every person it could send out to fight, even if they were barely functioning pieces of junk like the Death of Tyranny.

* * *

Captain Elcid Barrett scowled throughout the whole process. He knew that his ship was a piece of crap, and wondered just who he had pissed off in the chain of command to get stuck here. Perhaps it was because of his negative opinions on some of the less than ethical things that were being done in the name of victory against the Covenant. Maybe such measures were necessary in a war of survival, he would concede that, but these sorts of ethical concessions had been going on for generations. Back when he had been a fresh faced Ensign, just out of the Academy, he had been stationed on several planets that the UNSC had recently taken from the Insurrectionists. The hatred shown to him and his fellow sailors and marines shook his conceptions of right and wrong to their very core.

He had objected to many of the things that had been done, like everything that the ONI did, up to and including the SPARTAN's. At his age, he should have been an Admiral, but his opinions on the war had kept him held back, with the only thing preventing him from being discharged being the desperate need in the UNSC for experienced officers in frontline service.

They had sent him to the Death of Tyranny to die. Well screw them, he'd make this ship a capable warship and transport again. Even if it seemed to be constantly falling apart around him.

 **AN. Thoughts? Opinions? Did any of you catch the references here?**

 **Edit: In case anyone was wondering, I was referring to Red vs Blue and Stan Rogers' Barrett's Privateers.**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN. This is a little more of the story.**

Private Leroy Sabot, 21 years old, was sleeping in his bunk when he was awoken from his sleep by the smell and sound of someone farting. Unfortunately, that fart was right in his face. And it was chili night the last time in the mess.

"Gah, what the hell! Uncool man!" Leroy exclaimed.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA, did you see your face!? Thank God I had that picture saved."

"UUUUUGGGHH!" he groaned, levering himself out of his bunk and getting dressed for PT. They ran laps around the length of the ship, using the various stairs to simulate running up hills, avoiding the locations where the ships gravity was patchy and most certainly steering clear of the reactor. After they had finished PT, he got ready for the day and went to breakfast. Once he'd finished eating, he worked in the kitchen helping to prepare food for the next meal and clean the dishes alongside the cooks, and then had lunch. By the time he got off his work detail at 1600, all he wanted to do was just unwind.

Pulling up his computer, he decided to play an ancient Interactive Experience from the dawn of Interactive Experiences. It was part of a very old series of Interactive Experiences called Pokémon. He rather liked it, even if most of his fellow Infantry Marines considered him a nerd for taking interest in such an old thing when Virtual Reality allowed for any number of more immersive experiences. He liked it though, and that was really all that mattered to him. He whiled away the hours trying to train his Pokémon to be the best they could be.

* * *

Captain Barrett allowed himself some amount of contentment. The resupply had been uneventful and technicians from the other ship had managed to fix some of his guns and even got the MAC cannon working more consistently than it had before. He was peeved that the technicians couldn't do anything about the faulty slipspace drive or his patchwork reactor, but he would take what he could. At least some of the issues with his ship were fixed.

All of a sudden, just as they finished resupply and the transport disconnected with his ship, slipspace portals began opening up. Covenant cruisers began making their appearance and opened fire on the human fleet.

"Dammit, why'd they have to show up now?" thought Barrett.

"General Quarters, General Quarters, get to your Battle Stations, MAC Cannon, get ready to fire."

To keep a long story short, things went to shit very quickly for the fleet around Reach. Thanks to the sheer surprise of the Covenant attack, most of the UNSC fleet had been destroyed before it had any chance to mount any effective resistance. Those few that had were severely outnumbered and could do very little except buy time for the forces on the ground.

Barrett had to make a difficult choice. As per the Cole Protocol, no ship could fall into the hands of the Covenant, and he was going to have to choose between blowing up his ship and running. Very soon, the choice was made for him, due to several Covenant ships approaching his own. As the few guns he had working opened up, the Covenant began opening fire. Even with the patchwork nature of his ship, it was still a tough old girl and managed to take a few on the chin. Still, he couldn't keep this up indefinitely. Ultimately, he made the choice that would alter the course of the war and made the jump. He silently thanked whatever Gods may be that the slipspace fired up on the first try. What no one knew at the time was that the slipspace drive had caught something truly ancient, and found a path that would lead to a whole new civilization. In any case, the realization did not come immediately, due to the fact that the transfer had knocked everyone out cold.

* * *

Leroy was just waking up from being knocked out cold and had no idea where they were. When the Tyranny had made the jump, he had been knocked unconscious. It was almost as bad as the time he was NJP'd for being drunk on leave. Weren't they all drunk from fighting this stupid war? Where hundreds of millions of young men were being marched off to die in a war of survival? They were now orbiting an unknown planet that showed the capability to support life in an unknown sector of the galaxy. None of their star charts showed the area, so it was safe to assume they were outside UNSC territory, and given the complete lack of fire against them, the Covenant's as well.

His sergeant came forward, and said to his squad as they snapped to attention, "Men and women, I've got great news, good news, bad news, and worse news. The good news is we managed to get away from those Covie bastards. The bad news is that we're around an unknown planet with signs of life. The worse news is that we have no fucking idea where we are and how to get home. But do you know what the great news is?"

"NO SIR," they all belted out as loudly as they could.

"We're the lucky group that's going to be sent down there first. I don't care if we find God himself down there, if it's a threat to the UEG, you take it out faster than a grunt dies on a battlefield. AM I RIGHT, MARINES?"

"SIR, YES SIR!"

In all honesty though, Leroy was terrified. He knew more or less what to expect with the Covenant, and although terrifying in so many respects, at least it was familiar. They were going into an unknown environment where they had no clue what to expect. Better to fight the enemy you knew than the one you didn't, but his was not to question why. Three hours later, they were being sent down along with ten other squads onto the surface of the planet to clear a landing zone for the Tyranny. The reason for so few troops was apparently because of the fact that there were no signs of intelligent life on the planet, so it wasn't deemed necessary to bring in a greater force than this. They were all about to discover how wrong this was.

 **AN. Please read and review. I'm always nervous putting something up on here, so I'd really like your opinions. Constructive criticism is appreciated, but those who hate solely for hate or to troll will be actively ignored.**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN. And now we enter crossover territory.**

Vulpes the Zoroark was lounging around on guard duty that day, with not a care in the world. She knew that aside from minor disagreements and a few criminals, everything was peaceful around the regions. Still, they were always wary of what might happen, especially if one of the Creations found them. Hence the ordered radio and technological silence, although all of the equipment was drilled with to reflex and maintained and improved over time when it wasn't hidden. No one aside from the Legendaries had seen the Creations in many eons, so Vulpes was highly doubtful that anything was going to happen on her watch.

It was in the middle of these sanguine thoughts that she saw ten streaks moving across the sky that clearly did not belong to anything from any of the regions. She sounded the alarm, and waited for her Captain to arrive while observing the streaks. It looked like they were heading for the large plains next to the forest, so that was most likely where they would intercept them. Vulpes knew action was coming, so she donned her armor and got ready for the fight. Not that she really needed the armor. She was extremely well trained in fighting with or without it, it just enhanced her natural abilities and gave her protection from anything short of their most powerful abilities and weaponry. Well, if these beings thought they were going to harm the planet, they had another thing coming. She and her comrades in the defense forces would see to that.

* * *

Leroy had no clue what to expect. The moment they touched down, they found themselves in the middle of the plains with a forest to their front. He expected his squad was going to have to clear it out, and he was not disappointed. Given that assignment, he would carry it out to the best of his abilities, but he knew that this was incredibly dangerous. A forest offers infinite opportunities for ambushes, inability to bring in vehicles, and all round good defensive ground. For a moment, he thought he saw something on his motion trackers, but he dismissed it, due to the fact that it was only there for half a second. That was his mistake.

* * *

Vulpes moved silently with the rest of her platoon, stalking the squad of what were apparently one of the Creations. She had always had a fascination for humanity, reading of its many battles, daring triumphs against insurmountable odds, of their tenacity to survive. And for all that, they were still brought so low by the Forerunners because they couldn't accept that humanity had gained the approval of Arceus and the Precursors. She read of how the humans had fought a two front war against the Flood and the Forerunners, winning the fight against the Flood, but losing to the Forerunners. To be forced down as low as humanity was, Vulpes didn't think it fair.

In the end, the Forerunners met their end quite deservedly from the ashes of those they slaughtered to attain their position. Vulpes felt no pity for them, especially due to the fact that their solution against the Flood was to destroy all life in the galaxy. Such genocide was inexcusable, even if they did attempt to reseed the rest of the planets. Well, with the flood locked up in the Halos, at least they wouldn't have to worry about that.

Shifting her mind back onto the subject at hand, she was surprised to see humanity here. After all, they HAD fallen so far. It was incredible that they had pulled back so quickly. They shouldn't have been able to reach here for hundreds of years, even with slipspace drives. What were they doing here? Her suit had a translator on it, so she had a pretty good idea of what they were saying. Something about clearing the forest. Well, she and her group would do something about that. Her suit cancelled out their motion trackers, and her illusion ability kept her perfectly concealed. They would reveal themselves when they saw fit, but for the time being, they followed the humans, keeping them constantly encircled.

 **AN. Please read and review.**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN. This one is going to be a little longer, so enjoy.**

Leroy was certain that something was up. They had seen nothing the entire time they were in the forest. Not one bird, not one animal to be heard. It was completely silent, above and beyond what was to be expected. Just the wind rustling through the trees and the sound of their movement through the terrain. This was an unnatural level of quiet above and beyond what should have been expected on any planet. To use the old cliché, it was quiet, too quiet. The absolute quiet accentuated the sounds of their own movement, and it was making everyone jumpy and paranoid.

They reached a particularly dense part of the forest, where the trees were so close together they wouldn't be able to go on any further. With that, his sergeant told them all to head back out. Suddenly, they saw beings materializing out of nowhere. They looked like nothing he had ever experienced in the war, and that was saying something. They all looked like foxes, but they were bipedal with long flowing scarlet fur on the top of their heads and were holding strange looking rifles in their claws. They all stood around 5'5" and were scowling at them. It was a standoff on both sides.

Only extreme discipline kept him from firing, and he knew that this was dangerous due to the fact that they were outnumbered nearly 4:1 (AN, use US Marine size chart for numbers, a squad is around 12 people, a platoon is around 45). Then, a call in clear and unambiguous English came out from a fox with different coloration from the rest.

"Humans, lay down your weapons. You are surrounded and we have the advantage of numbers. We have jammed your radios and the other squads are being contained as we speak. We do not wish to see bloodshed, but if you open fire, we will retaliate."

His sergeant, ever the belligerent, said, "Only when you pry it out of my cold dead hands after I've used it to blow a hole clean through that armor and beat your skull in."

The fox made a sighing noise and said, "There is no need for that, we are a mostly peaceful species. If you would just lay down your weapons, we promise not to fire on you, on my honor as an officer. While your presence on this planet is surprising, we wish to welcome you warmly to it. However, since you came armed, we must assume hostile intent and hence our presence here. So I restate it, lay down your weapons."

They were all extremely wary of these beings, especially considering that they had had no known contact with this species, yet they already knew of humanity. And for some reason, at least to Leroy, they seemed familiar. He thought about it for a few moments, trying to place where he had seen beings like this before. Then it hit him.

He was something of a history buff when it came to ancient entertainment systems and he remembered a specific game from one of those systems. Pokémon was its name. He knew of nearly 950 different types of Pokémon from his studies of the game, one of the more popular ones of its day. He thought that the beings in front of him were Pokémon, as strange as that notion was. He stepped forward with his gun lowered, although ready, and asked, "You beings. You are known as Pokémon, right? You're a Zoroark, a shiny Zoroark at that if my memory serves me correctly on your species name and coloration."

Several of the Marines were in awe at him, and asked, "You know what these things are?!" They all asked.

"I think so," Leroy said.

The Zoroark, if that was what they were, were equally astonished, and the one who had spoken asked, "You know of us?"

"Yes, I do. Zoroark, the Illusion Fox Pokémon, capable of generating illusions so real that the victims mind is fooled into incorporating sensory cues, including pain. You typically do not do this unless someone is threatening your young or packmates, in which case you fight extremely fiercely. Said to be incredibly intelligent and extremely strong, and I guess the fact that you apparently have us outgunned proves the intelligence."

* * *

Vulpes was stunned that there was a human that knew of them. She knew of the attempt to educate humans of their kind, but that had not gone well and had been abandoned centuries ago. The fact that there was a human here who not only knew they existed, but was able to quote specific facts about them was stunning. Apparently, the experiment was a success after all.

Eventually, her Captain spoke up, and said, "You are wise, human, to be able to remember details from when we tried to educate your kind of us. However, we left out one detail. We are not mere subordinates to your kind, we were your progenitors, as we were to the Precursors, to the Forerunners, and to the San'Shyuum, the Sanghelli, the Jiralhanae, the Huragok, the Mgalekgolo, the Yanmae'e, the Kig-Yar, and the Unggoy."

This caused quite a stir amongst all of the Marines. She heard them say, "These creatures were the predecessors of the Forerunners, Humanity, AND the Covenant?"

Vulpes' Captain then said, "We really don't want this to end in bloodshed. Please lower your weapons and come with us. We assure you of decent treatment, according to the standards set down by the Geneva conventions. In fact, we would treat you not as enemies to be contained, but as guests in our house to be accommodated as best as possible. If you would just come along peaceably, then we could do this."

* * *

Leroy decided to take a chance, and he laid down his rifle. Slowly, but surely the others did as well, and he explained, "I believe they're telling the truth. If they had wanted us dead, they could have done it with a lot less effort than they expended trying to get us to surrender. Worse, they could have simply used those illusion powers I mentioned to make us tire ourselves and then take us prisoner easily."

As they marched on with the Zoroark by their sides, he noticed one of them looking at him. He was wondering what that was all about, and he asked, "Uh, why are you staring at me?"

The Zoroark looked him in the eyes and replied in a feminine voice, "You must be a scholar in our kind to understand anything about us. I apologize for the welcoming committee, but we had to know if you humans were going to handle this in a rational manner. Your kind were always known for their tenacity and stubbornness, so we were not certain how you would react to our presence. My name is Vulpes, by the way. It's a pleasure to meet you," while she extended her paw in a gesture apparently meant to be a handshake.

Leroy hesitated, because he was still slightly terrified, but eventually he took her paw and shook it. "Thanks for the compliment, but I'm no scholar, just a Marine with too much time on his hands on leave and a burning need to alleviate it with no chance of actually picking up a girl that would put me out of action. It's good to know that at least some gestures are universal," he said, "to be perfectly honest, none of my people thought you were real. That you were all just figments of a Japanese man's imagination writ large."

She seemed to be confused a little, and then brightened, "Oh yeah, Japanese is one of the names you came up with to describe subsets of yourself. I, like you was a being with too much time on her paws, so I pored over all of the information we had on your kind. That is where I knew of the handshake. Still, you have so many different cultures and subcultures, all with their own ideas and values. It's sometimes hard to remember them all."

Leroy smiled a bit at that, and said, "It's sometimes difficult for us as well."

They continued to chat politely enough as they went along their way, and had made good friends with each other by the time that they made it to the edge of the forest. There they found the other nine squads all kept in a circle. They were told to join them in the circle, and did as they were ordered to. Vulpes was still near Leroy, so he asked her what was going on.

"Your ship has been calling you for the last half hour, and is starting to get worried about you not calling in. While they would be justifiably suspicious of us if we were to call, they would at the least be willing to listen if you were to call them. Therefore, we would like you to call them down. We truly do not mean your people any harm. I can tell you this because we have already talked with our leaders, and they said to let your ship down to the planet on the condition that you do not brandish your weapons against our peoples."

Leroy shrugged, and said, "I would prefer a peaceful solution as well. I'd like there to be at least one group of living beings who didn't hate our guts."

He could see one of the Lieutenants making the call at that moment. He could faintly hear the response on the radio, and it seemed encouraging enough, that at least their own side was not going to fire on these beings. A few hours later, Leroy saw the Death of Tyranny start to land on the planet, and as it did, he was aware of how historic a moment he was participating in.

He had been among the first humans to come into contact with an intelligent alien species that wasn't hell bent on slaughtering them all. This was an interesting day for him, and it had all started with a Covenant attack. He was uncertain if he should say anything about that to Vulpes though. He would wait until the Captain of the Death to Tyranny arrived.

The ship had finally reached its hold point, and shortly thereafter, he saw Captain Barrett coming towards the group after landing in Pelicans, although he came with an entire company of Marines, clearly expecting trouble. He glared at the Zoroark who all kept their weapons at the ready.

 **AN. Did anyone catch the references so far? And as always, please read and review.**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN. Here is the next part of the story.**

Captain Elcid Barrett was not a happy camper. He had just found out that all ten squads that he had sent down to the planet had been captured by unknown native forces. This was not good, and he had only himself to blame. He had assumed that there was no sentient life based on the fact that there were no signs of it on the planet. These beings were fiercely intelligent, and had suckered him in by keeping total technological silence.

He felt bad for the squads, but from what he had heard, they were being treated equitably, something unheard of for the past 60 years of human history. The Insurrectionists hadn't treated prisoners that well and the Covenant…well the Covenant tended to take no prisoners and any humans who fell into their hands were going to be tortured until they died. As such, he was wary of the reports. As the ship landed, the AI, who bore an uncanny resemblance in both appearance, temperament, and voice to Winston Churchill responded, "Sir I see all ten squads down in the clearing along with whatever creatures captured them. They seem to be very heavily equipped, above and beyond even what the Covenant have."

That scared the Captain quite greatly. "These beings are more advanced than the Covenant," he asked the AI. "It would appear so, Sir. However, I note that none of the soldiers have been injured in battle and it appears that they have indeed been treated equitably, if the helmet cams are any indication. It looks like these aliens were telling the truth."

The Captain relaxed a little, but only a little. He was still wary of these aliens, after all, they had spent the last 28 years fighting aliens, but his gut instincts were telling him that everything was alright. As he marched out to confront these new beings, he took an entire company with him in pelicans. As he entered the clearing after touching down, he noticed a few more details about the beings in front of him. They were fox like beings, but stood bipedally. He was mildly interested, but he was more focused on the safety of the Marines.

One of the aliens, a purple furred one moved forward, and stated, in English, "Captain Elcid Barrett, we apologize for seizing your men, but we had no clue whether you meant hostile intent to us or not. We would like to return your squads to you on the condition that you promise not to harm any residents of the Federation."

Barrett was somewhat curious about what the Federation was, but he decided now was neither the time nor the place. "I agree so long as I get my Marines back."

"Agreed. Alright, you humans may go back." The fox beings shifted far enough to allow the Marines to go back, which they did quite promptly. Barrett felt that now that danger was mostly out of the way for his men, he could get down to business.

"As you have stated, I am Captain Elcid Barrett of the United Nations Space Command, Commander of the UNSC Phoenix Class Transport Death of Tyranny. What are you beings?"

The purple furred one cleared his throat and said, "I am First Lieutenant Marcus. I believe that your Private First Class Leroy Sabot could explain in a way that would make sense to you. He seems to have knowledge of our kind."

With that, Barrett turned to the Marine in question, who had been among the group that had been returned to his custody. He called for the Marine to come and once the Marine was at ease, he said, "What is this guy talking about?"

Leroy sorted out his thoughts in an attempt to say this in a way that wouldn't sound insane.

"Sir, I believe we called them Pokémon, short for Pocket Monsters. They were part of an old video game series from around the turn of the 21st Century, although the one I talked to told me that was an attempt to educate us about them. These Pokémon in front of us are called Zoroark, the mature form of the Pokémon Zorua. They are described as being able to cast illusions that can fool a large number of people. Pokémon in general are described as beings of incredible powers and from what I can tell here, great intelligence and technological achievement. Sir, they don't seem to be the sort that want to wipe us all out without very good reason." Leroy added that bit because of the Covenant.

"Thank you for the information Marine. Dismissed."

"Yes sir," the Private replied and fell back to the rest of the Marines who had returned. This was an interesting development for the Captain. He contemplated what this could potentially mean for humanity. Barrett knew that he was part of history at this point, if he ever made it home. He was the leader present when humanity had made first contact with a species of intelligent life that was NOT bent on wiping humanity out for being an affront to something or other. Furthermore, if he could secure an alliance with these beings, the course of the war would definitely be changed, especially if they were as technologically advanced as was demonstrated here. He decided to ask the being in front of him a few questions.

"If you truly have no intention of harming our people, is it alright if we rest here for a few days? Our Marines and Sailors are exhausted from the war."

The lead Zoroark, Marcus, thought for a moment, and said, "I am not high enough in my chain of command to make that decision, but if you would be willing to come with me, I could take you to someone who is capable of making that call."

Barrett thought for a moment, and said, "I will, on the condition that I am allowed to bring a squad of Marines with me for protection. I apologize for sounding paranoid, but humanity has not exactly had a good history when it comes to interspecies contact."

Marcus looked like he was thinking for a few seconds, and then said, "So be it, follow me, and bring your squad with you." With that, Barrett took his squad with him, making certain to include the Marine who had informed him about the Pokémon, Leroy Sabot was his name. As they went along, the Zoroark kept an eye on his men and his men kept an eye on them. Everyone was still wary. They made it to a clearing in the forest, and were told to wait. Shortly thereafter, a tremendous rumbling sound broke out and as they waited, a large being unlike anything any human, except Leroy apparently had ever seen before approached them. It looked almost like a horse, with white fur, gray on the face, and a golden hoop around its waist. They were awed by the presence of the being, although the Marines present were also scared.

The being then spoke to them, "I am Arceus, creator of all. You are the first humans to meet me in person in the last 100,000 years. I assume that your presence here means something has gone wrong. I would like to hear of what befell humanity after I explain myself."

Arceus then related to him the history of humanity, of the Forerunners, and the Covenant. Barrett was astounded to learn that humanity had once been the equals of the Forerunners, and had been devolved when the Precursors had decided on humanity as their successors. The Forerunners in turn killed the Precursors, and had created a worse enemy, the Flood. The reason humanity had lost their war with the Forerunners was due to the fact that they were weakened from successfully fighting off the Flood. The flood fed on organic life, and in order to save the galaxy, the Forerunners created weapons, known as Halos, to destroy all life in the galaxy in order to starve the flood to death.

At the same time, a sympathetic Forerunner, the Librarian, had catalogued all life in the galaxy, such that when the time came, life would be reseeded and begin anew. Pokémon had preceded all of that, and Arceus and others like him had been alive for all of that time. They had created all of the life in the galaxy, down to the smallest detail. They had rescued the other Pokémon by pulling them into another dimension when the Halos went off.

Arceus finished by describing the attempt by Pokémon to create awareness among humans of their existence, and just how much of a fiasco that had been and of how he had stopped paying attention to Earth after that. Then he asked Barrett to describe what had happened to humanity since then.

Barrett described how humanity had branched out to the stars, of how they had fought amongst themselves during the UNSC-Insurrection war, and of how they had met and were forced to fight the Covenant. He concluded by asking for permission to set up bases in the plains so they wouldn't disturb any currently existing populations.

* * *

Arceus was stunned to hear of the horrible fate humanity had had happen to them, and asked Barrett to clarify at numerous points. He was saddened greatly by the deaths of so many innocents, and knew that something had to be done. However, he knew that this decision was not his alone to make. He had to meet with the rest of the Legendary Pokémon and confer with them.

To the Captain, he said, "I am greatly saddened to hear of what happened with your kind. While the decision is not mine to make alone, I can say that your kind are allowed to stay here as long as is necessary to repair your ship and get back to the fight. I will make your case before my fellow Legendaries, and hopefully they will agree with me. I may be the leader, but I am merely one among many in the decision making process. While you might not get reinforcements, we are more than willing to share resources on the condition that there will be no fighting between us. As for the bases, so long as they are packed up when you leave, you may establish whatever accommodations you feel necessary on the planet." With that, he left in a flash of light, leaving a quite bewildered group of Marines behind.

 **AN. How am I doing so far?**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN. Here's a little bit more of what I wrote for this story.**

Leroy was as surprised as everyone else, especially after meeting what was essentially the God for Pokémon, and in a sense humanity as well.

Captain Barrett was looking at him and asked him, "Who was that?"

"Arceus, the God Pokémon. Said to have created the universe and all that lies within, including apparently us, the Forerunners, whatever these Precursors are, and the Covenant. Most powerful out of all the Pokémon. How true that is I'm not certain."

He saw the Captain pale a little, and then he asked, "Sir, are you alright?"

"Thank you for the information, Private. We had better get back to the ship." As they did that, the atmosphere relaxed quite a bit and he shouldered his weapon. He went over to Vulpes and discussed a little more about what made humanity tick. He discussed the concept of video games, and why they were an entertainment medium. Vulpes explained that they needed no such concept, as Pokémon had the innate ability to lucid dream, meaning they could imagine whatever environment they wanted for entertainment.

He also learned that one of the daily activities of every Pokémon was training with their abilities in order to become stronger. He asked her whether or not that was cruel to the children, he was told that Pokémon naturally aspire to grow up and become stronger, at least those who evolved, as they stated in the videogames. Those who didn't have an evolution did it as a way to pass the time.

Besides, they had always suspected that something like what had happened with the Death to Tyranny would happen, and they needed to be prepared in case they had to fight. "While I don't know whether or not our kind will fight side by side, the story that was told of what happened to your kind is a disgrace. The Forerunners were ultimately undone by their greed and complacence, and to call them Gods merely for their technological achievements is blind. They were no less prone to mistakes born of jingoism and fear than the rest of us."

"For example, our kind had a massive war between the various regions a long time ago and it was extremely bloody. The dead numbered in the billions and it seemed there would be no end. Fortunately, the people realized their mistakes and made a peace treaty and our society has been peaceful ever since. It helps when one has the ability to throw lightning naturally or read minds. It would be too dangerous to be hostile anyway."

Then Leroy thought of something else that was bothering him, "What about food? What do your folks do for food? I mean, I understand that you have berries, but for Pokémon such as Aerodactyl or even dare I say it yourself, are described as carnivores. How do you deal with that?"

* * *

Vulpes contemplated for a moment and then said, "We deal with it in several ways. For one thing, Oran and Sitrus berries contain quite a bit of protein in them, so we can get sustenance from that alone. If that doesn't work, we keep things such as your cow, horse, deer, chicken, and pig in order to deal with that. We farm as well, in order to grow vegetables. I believe that answers that question. Do you have any others?"

Leroy blushed at that, because there had been one question he had been thinking of, and it was not exactly one he wanted to say out loud. "Before I ask the question I want to ask, I need you to tell me one thing, can you do telepathy and can I communicate with you just using my thoughts?" A voice in his head suddenly said, "Yes to both, why do you ask?" "The question I have is somewhat sensitive and has to do with your means of birth. Is it true that you come from eggs?"

"I don't see what's so sensitive about it. It's a fact of life and those that can't accept that, at least here, are narrow minded in their worldview anyways. But to answer your question, yes for some Pokémon exclusively, but it can depend for Pokémon of a mammalian nature. We can choose between carrying it and creating an egg. Anything else you wanted to ask?"

Leroy blushed a little at how frank she had been about that, but he accepted it anyway. The more they knew about these beings, the better. After all, they needed to know the taboos and social mores that existed among these beings.

"Does the concept of marriage exist here?" he asked in his thoughts. "Yes, and it is for life, unlike so many species of your home world. The two halves are equal in the agreement, neither superior to the other." Interesting to know some things were universal after all. At least some things that should have been universal. Too many Dear John letters to be optimistic about that anymore.

Vulpes was as interested in this human's culture as much as he was interested in hers. They discussed these things for hours on the way back to the shuttle for his ship. She asked him about his experiences with the Covenant, and of what was going on in the universe. He told her numerous horrible stories of a losing war against the Covenant, of billions dead from the same, who showed no mercy to the young, the crippled, the weak, the strong, the complacent, the collaborators, the heroes, none were spared. They killed them all equally. They destroyed entire planets in the pursuit of their religious dogma, which they both knew was based on a huge lie by now anyway. It was all a huge waste of life for no good reason.

She said as much to Leroy, and he said in return, "Even if you were to reveal it to them, aside from splitting their Covenant open, they'd probably still fight us, because that is what they know. They've been fighting us for the last quarter of a century. I don't think humanity would fare much better, because we've been fighting near nonstop for 59 years. There are so few people who remember what peace really is. There are also too many people in positions of power due to the war and they would never relinquish it when the war is over. In short, I would not be surprised if they forced us to fight your kind."

Vulpes was saddened by this and said, "If that does happen, and we should meet on the Battlefield, I wish you to know that most Pokémon hold a positive to at least neutral opinion of humanity. The Legendaries considered your kind one of their greater accomplishments, not for your strength or your intelligence, though you are a crafty species. They were proud of you for your tenacity. For your willingness to keep going against insurmountable odds." She couldn't really tell beyond his helmet, but she hoped that Leroy was reassured by that.

 **AN. Well, what did you think? Please review so I can better write the next bit. Also read my other stuff please.**


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